A debate over civil liberties is brewing inside a Montreal taxi. Cab driver Arieh Perecowicz has been handed six tickets totalling $1,400 for failing to remove family photos and religious paraphernalia from his cab.

He has refused to pay any of the tickets and instead, is driving his case straight to the Human Rights Commission.

Like many cab drivers, Perecowicz spends a lot of time in his cab and keeps pictures of his family with him. The photos of his wife, daughter and son are well-secured on the dashboard and he says they are not a hazard to passengers since there is no way they could become loose.

Also on the dash are small Canadian and Israeli flags and a Remembrance Day poppy. Along with a photo of the founder of Chabad Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish movement, he also has two mezuzahs affixed to the car frame between the front and back doors.

Mezuzahs are tiny prayer parchments that are often posted over the door frames of Jewish homes. The prayer is said as one leaves the house in the belief it will help one return home safely.

The 65-year-old cabbie says he’s had these items in his car for almost 43 years and doesn’t know why they’re causing a problem now.

The tickets were issued by the Bureau du taxi, Montreal’s taxi agency, which says its bylaws allow it to order the cabbie to remove the items immediately. But Perecowicz says he doesn’t understand why he should.

“The bylaw is not exactly clear; it’s quite vague. The way it is written, it says ‘no object should be left in a taxi that is not required for the cab to be in service.’ That can be interpreted into anything you want to think of,” he said.

Perecowicz argues that his cab is his workplace and plenty of other people keep personal mementoes at work. Doctors and teachers, for example, who work with members of the public every day, keep family photos in their workplaces.

Even the speaker in Quebec’s National Assembly keeps a religious item at his workplace – a crucifix — that is not required or necessary for his job.

Perecowicz says he has never once heard a complaint from a customer that the items in his car offended them. “This is coming directly from the city,” he says.

He wonders what sparked the first ticket back in December, 2006, but notes that it came days after he and other drivers went on television to complain that the taxi bureau was not acting to curtail unlicensed cabs.

The federal government is asking the courts if the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has the right to hear the case by two First Nations organizations that the federal government is discriminating against the thousands of First Nations children in care by underfunding the agencies that are supposed to look after them.

“At its heart, this issue is about caring for the most vulnerable members of our society. Our children deserve the same care afforded to other children in Canada. We hope all parties to work together to address the inequities in the system,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo. “We look forward to the fair and independent process offered by an independent Human Rights Tribunal, as a step towards solutions which are urgently needed.”

Monday September 14, 2009 was the first time a human rights complaint case involving discrimination by the federal government against First Nations has been filed with the Human Rights Commission.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) filed the case more than two years ago.

The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada is a national non-profit organization providing services to First Nations child welfare organizations.

Since the case was first filed, the Human Rights Commission recommended mediation three times that the First Nation organizations accepted while the government refused.

During that span, a number of reports by the Auditor General of Canada (2008) and Standing Committee on Public Accounts (2009) found that the federal government is not funding First Nations child welfare agencies at the same level as provincial services resulting in inequitable services.

AFN pointed out that agencies serving the First Nation communities receive 22% less funding than their provincial counterparts.

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Evolution

Like virtually all other virtual things, The Lynch Mob is a not a static object. In fact, one of the earliest things to change was the name itself. This site started out as The Lynch Files - a couple of days later it was called The Lynch Mob. Same blog, different name. During a sabbatical taken by founder Walker Morrow, others stepped up to keep the blog running and continue to hold the feet of CHRC commissioner Jennifer Lynch - and all her provincial counterparts - to the fire.